Extracellular hyaline bodies are basement membrane accumulations

Diverse hyaline bodies occurring in various diseases were investigated immunocytochemically with antibodies to type IV collagen and laminin. These hyaline bodies included those found predominantly extracellularly in adenoid cystic carcinomas, endodermal sinus tumors, Spitz nevi, lichen planus, diabetic glomerular nodular sclerosis, and odontogenic cysts, and those found predominantly intracellularly in alcoholic liver disease, Kaposi's sarcoma, and malignant fibrous histiocytoma. The hyaline bodies found in the first six diseases displayed intense immunoreactivity for the basement membrane components, type IV collagen, and laminin, whereas the hyaline bodies occurring in the latter three diseases were unreactive. These findings suggest that a common histogenesis of the extracellular hyaline body is the stimulatory effect of an altered growth state (hyperplasia, neoplasia, or endocrinopathy) on basement membrane synthesis in cells that normally produce a basement membrane.